Resilient Penn Comes Back to Beat Harvard in OT

Penn senior Drew Belinsky intercepted a Harvard pass in overtime, rushing downfield to find Zack Losco, who fed freshman Kevin Brown on the crease for a goal as the Quakers came back to stun Harvard 8-7 Saturday at Franklin Field.

The Quakers scored two goals late in the fourth quarter — one a Belinsky man-up goal with 13 seconds left in regulation — to force the extra period.

The senior's game-winning goal came in transition, a sequence in which many coaches would call a timeout to set up a play for a final score.

For Penn coach Mike Murphy, a timeout wasn't even an option.

“The ref came over to me and said, 'Coach do you want a timeout.' I said, 'Not even close, we're going to score a goal right here,” Murphy said after the game.

Murphy does not play d-middies, instead playing a deep bench of two-way midfielders. In the final play, Belinsky did both — caused a turnover on defense, then made the right decision on an offensive push.

Murphy continues: “I knew we had Drew and Zack coming down the field in a 5-on-4. … Because we don't play d-middies we just go up and down the field. I've called far fewer timeouts this year. There's no way I was going to call a timeout to try to control some play that maybe it works or it doesn't work when we have our best players on the field in an unsettled situation with a chance of scoring.”

The senior Belinsky pressed out on to Harvard's Will Walker, then knew from there he had numbers to execute the play.

“I was covering an attackman, so I knew I didn't want to give him too much room between me for his dodge. I pressed out a little on the pass, and it looks like he tried to make his move before he caught it. It popped out of his stick and somehow landed into mine.,” Belinsky says. “I ran up the field and I saw Zack Losco running next to me and only one guy ahead of me so I knew we had numbers 5-4. I tried to draw the guy, then passed it to Zack. I thought he was going to shoot it but he made a nice one more to Kevin Brown.”

The Quakers were down 7-5 in the fourth quarter. Losco pulled the Quakers within one at 4:03 remaining in the game on an unassisted goal coming around the net. Penn killed off two penalties minutes earlier — two EMO attempts the Crimson would like to have back — forcing Harvard into some ill-advised shots.

Belinsky's goal came shortly after Penn brought Brian Feeney out of the net, double-teaming Harvard with less than a minute left when the finish seemed all but assured in favor of the Crimson. Penn put the pressure on Harvard midfielder Daniel Eipp, who made a pass to behind the Penn net that went out of bounds, giving the Quakers the final chance.

On the ensuing clear, Harvard's Sean Mahon was called offsides, giving Penn the timely EMO opportunity in which Belinsky cashed in. The game-tying goal was not on a set play, but after the ball went around the offense a few times, Belinsky found the ball in his stick with space to shoot off a feed from Nick Doktor— an outside shot he buried.

It's not the first time Penn has all been all but out of a game this year and come back. The Quakers were down 5-1 to Denver and won that game 12-10. Against Villanova, Penn was down 11-7 in the fourth quarter.

Harvard controlled much of the game. Gabe Mendola went 13-of-18 on face-offs for Harvard. But the Crimson never held a lead of more than two goals, much to the credit of Feeney in the Penn goal who had 13 saves, many of them key, momentum-killing stops.

Midfielder Peter Schwartz led Harvard with two goals and one assist, with middie Carl Zimmerman adding two goals and Sean McDonagh one. Attackman Devin Dwyer had three assists — he and Schwartz create a lethal tandem with each drawing defenses in and allowing the other to cut through — and Will Walker and Deke Burns added a goal each. Jake Gambitsky had 10 saves.

The Quakers move to 3-2 in the Ivy League and still have a chance to host the conference tournament — though a series of tiebreaker scenarios and much lacrosse still to play will determine that. Harvard moves to 3-1 in the league with Yale and Princeton still on the Ivy docket.

For Murphy, whose first senior class that he recruited held Senior Day on the field before the game, his system is starting to pay dividends.

“It was a pretty tough pill for us to swallow a year and a half ago to not play d-middies and just simplify the offense and defense, but I think it's starting to pay off,” he says.

But more importantly, it's another gut-check win for his team despite being largely outplayed.

“We talked about it Thursday and Friday. We want to win face-offs, we want to be good on offense, be good on offense, all of that,” he says. “But in the end, we just want to be tougher, a little more resilient and find a way to win the game.”